Rikku's Contest History
Who is Rikku? Rikku is one of the first characters that Tidus meets once he enters Spira, but one of the last to actually join the party. Funny how that works. She is a member of the Al-Bhed, an organization in Spira that builds and condones the use of machina (fancy word for machines). Machina are generally shunned in Spira because the people are led to believe that their use caused the appearance of Sin. Al-Bhed believes that there is no proof of this and uses them anyway. Though it takes a long time for Rikku to join the party, she serves as the cute comic relief that lightens the mood when everyone is down. And unlike most girls that play out this role in RPGs, she isn't overly annoying with it and has a very good character hidden under the wearing-emotion-on-the-sleeve exterior. Her Al-Bhed beliefs and Wakka's Yevon beliefs always clash, and it's hilarious to see this little girl stick up for her beliefs and stand up to someone over twice her size. Rikku is also a very trusting character by nature, and takes Yuna's plight to heart. The two go on to become best friends, and it extends far enough so as to share a journey in Final Fantasy X-2. A lot of people have a stereotype about Rikku that she's some stupid slut, but that doesn't really come into play until the POS cash grab known as Final Fantasy X-2. There's a real difference between cute and slutty, and Rikku is the former in Final Fantasy X. And even if you don't like her character (though you should, given that her father is only way you're getting an airship in FFX), she can kill any enemy machina in battle just by stealing from them, plus her Mix ability is as underrated as it gets and is an integral part of succeeding in challenge play. "Sometimes when I've got a lot on my mind, it just helps to go 'Aaaaaaaa!!'" - Rikku Rikku's Contest History Win-Loss Record: 3-5 Summer 2005 Contest - Dream Division - 7 Seed * Dream Round 1 --- Lost to (2) Ryu, 47054 44.28% - 59210 55.72% * Extrapolated Strength --- 30th Place 24.33% Of all the one-and-done Final Fantasy characters that got into Summer 2005 due to there being no company cap, Rikku had one of the most impressive losses. Based off of 2003 stats, Yuna would be projected to score 38.55% on Ryu. People noticed this, and assumed that Rikku would get nowhere close to this percentage. When the match with Ryu began, not only did Rikku clear this percentage with ease, but she spent the entire match making Ryu look like absolute crap. He started off with an underwhelming percentage, and it would only get lower as time marched on. Rikku exposed Ryu on that day and essentially proved that he had no chance in hell of beating Bowser, plus she gave some credit to the theory of Final Fantasy X-2 causing an increase for certain characters. Odd that in four years of contests, Rikku would be the first character to make Ryu look horrendous in a match. It would be nice to see her return to the field in a winnable scenario just to see what she can do. Summer 2006 Contest - Spazer Division - 3 Seed * Spazer Round 1 --- Defeated (6) Lenneth Valkyrie, 83124 75.00% - 27704 25.00% * Spazer Semifinal --- Defeated (2) Kairi, 75494 58.28% - 54043 41.72% * Spazer Final --- Lost to (1) Samus, 38387 31.00% - 85439 69.00% * Extrapolated Strength --- 26th Place 31.00% Rikku's second contest appearance was aided nicely by the female bracket, as she beat up on weak competition before bowing out to the eventual contest champion. As for how she'd do in a balanced bracket, she's one of the many upper midcarders that would be annoying as hell in a 3-6 type match, but not good for much else. Summer 2007 Contest - Division 1 - First Group * Division 1 Round 1 --- 3rd place, 42830 27.14% - Yoshi, 55989 35.48% - Knuckles the Echidna, 43939 27.84% - Vaan, 15064 9.54% Rikku is one of those characters that not many of us take seriously because...well, she's Rikku. Everyone was so excited about the return of Knuckles to even give her a second thought. That's why everyone was so flabbergasted when we saw her pull ahead of Knux early on in the match and go on to build a lead of 500. It wouldn't hold, but I think Rikku earned some respect that day. It also made everyone well aware of LFF right off the bat. However, the question is: Did Vaan being there help Rikku get that close in the first place, or did it prevent her from winning? Winter 2010 Contest - Chaos Division - 14 Seed * Chaos Round 1 --- Lost to (3) Kirby, 22560 42.47% - 30566 57.53% * Extrapolated Strength --- 62nd Place 22.96% After a one-year absence from the bracket, Rikku returned in 2010 as a 14-seed and was immediately thrust into a losing situation. This was considered to be another match that was more about how much the winner would get than who would win, and Rikku...overperformed, based on x-stats alone, temporarily quieting the Kirby > Sonic bandwagon. Looking at it from a logical standpoint, the 12-hour format probably helped her--Square characters do well at night, Nintendo's strength lies during the day, and her opponent was, well, Kirby, who is small, round, and pink, and therefore extremely poorly suited to a nighttime match. Given a 24-hour match, Kirby probably breaks 60 on her; given the other 12-hour match, he'd have an outside shot at doubling her, though it seems unlikely. Regardless, Rikku proved once again that she's not to be taken lightly. An interesting postscript: while the above write-up was composed shortly after the match in question and therefore the effect of the day-night split is probably overestimated, Vivi faced Kirby in a day match later in the contest and got 42.3''7%--just a tad ''less than what Rikku got, which if taken at face value would mean that the two are about equal, with Rikku being just a tad stronger. This makes for an interesting gauge of the day/night effect--figure out the actual difference in their strengths, and you've got a good value for how much the timing swung things. Summer 2013 Contest - Division 9 - 20 Seed * Division 9 Round 1 --- 1st place, 12980 41.57% - (8) ? Block, 11714 37.52% - (11) Lyndis, 6528 20.91% * Division 9 Round 2 --- 2nd place, 9076 29.43% - (2) Zero, 12866 41.72% - (23) Weighted Companion Cube, 8897 28.85% The low seed proved how far Rikku's inclusion is from a priority by the FFX fandom. Yet Nintendo LFF dragged down what could be a killer joke (after all, ? Block had beaten L-Block just after the Tetris piece's title) and Rikku led through the whole match for her first win in seven years. Beating Zero in the following match was impossible, but at least Rikku again proved stronger than a joke for the second time, keeping second place from back to back despite the Portal Cube getting closer with each update. Category:Contest Histories